DOJ Lawyer Dropped Dime On Bush Wiretaps

[sabra]

Source: CBS News/AP

Whistleblower Reveals He leaked Information About Warrantless Surveillance Program


(CBS/AP) A former Justice Department lawyer says he tipped off the news media about the Bush administration's warrantless eavesdropping program because it "didn't smell right," Newsweek magazine reported Sunday.

Thomas Tamm, whose suburban Washington home was searched by federal agents last year, told the magazine he leaked the existence of the secret program to The New York Times 18 months before the newspaper broke the story.

"I thought this was something the other branches of the government and the public ought to know about. So they could decide: do they want this massive spying program to be taking place?" Tamm told Newsweek in what the magazine said were a series of recent interviews that he granted against the advice of his lawyers.

"If somebody were to say, who am I to do that? I would say, 'I had taken an oath to uphold the Constitution.' It's stunning that somebody higher up the chain of command didn't speak up," the magazine quoted Tamm as saying.

Tamm, 56, told the magazine he called the Times from a subway station pay phone in Washington.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/12/15/national/main... ;topStories

---

Newsweek article: http://www.newsweek.com/id/174601

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Next time tell Greg Palast, or Josh Marshall

Poor guy...he really had no clue the MSM is the equivelant of Pravda.

edit: for typing before coffee

[Hissyspit]

41. INTERVIEW VIDEO HERE - Rachel Maddow Show:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[gratuitous]

2. Wasn't it nice of the Times to sit on the story for 18 months?

Wouldn't want to affect the outcome of the election by putting any actual facts into the public domain. Very decorous of the Times, no doubt.

[tclambert]

12. Some news media insist on getting two sources for every story before they publish.

I think the Weekly World News even used to require that. "Whut? Someone to back up muh story? Hey, hey, c'mere, darlin'. Whut's yer name? Corleen? You saw Bigfoot, too, dincha? Tell 'em you saw Bigfoot, too." "Sure, hon, I saw Bigfoot, whatever you say. You want me to take those empties?" There you go. Story confirmed.

[No Elephants]

15. You are assuming the reason for the delay. The Times should explain.

[pnwmom]

28. I bet they DID have difficulty finding confirmation of the story.

This guy had the Feds searching his house, and he's at risk of Federal charges. It probably wasn't easy for the Times to find someone else willing to take this kind of risk.

"Tamm told the magazine he has since struggled to make a living in private practice. FBI agents raided his house, grilled his family members, and questioned friends and associates. Though not formally charged with a crime, he has resisted pressure to cop a plea for divulging classified information."

[No Elephants]

43. You are assuming that the NYT even sought confirmation of the story.

[sabra]

18. WP: "Bush Presses Editors on Security"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

Bush Presses Editors on Security

By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 26, 2005; C01

President Bush has been summoning newspaper editors lately in an effort to prevent publication of stories he considers damaging to national security.

The efforts have failed, but the rare White House sessions with the executive editors of The Washington Post and New York Times are an indication of how seriously the president takes the recent reporting that has raised questions about the administration's anti-terror tactics.

Leonard Downie Jr., The Post's executive editor, would not confirm the meeting with Bush before publishing reporter Dana Priest's Nov. 2 article disclosing the existence of secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe used to interrogate terror suspects. Bill Keller, executive editor of the Times, would not confirm that he, publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and Washington bureau chief Philip Taubman had an Oval Office sit-down with the president on Dec. 5, 11 days before reporters James Risen and Eric Lichtblau revealed that Bush had authorized eavesdropping on Americans and others within the United States without court orders.

But the meetings were confirmed by sources who have been briefed on them but are not authorized to comment because both sides had agreed to keep the sessions off the record. The White House had no comment.

"When senior administration officials raised national security questions about details in Dana's story during her reporting, at their request we met with them on more than one occasion," Downie says. "The meetings were off the record for the purpose of discussing national security issues in her story." At least one of the meetings involved John Negroponte, the director of national intelligence, and CIA Director Porter Goss, the sources said.

[HillbillyBob]

27. flush and his fascist buddies pulled the handle and washed

our country down the toilet, he and all of them are the threat to our national security.
I even said this widely before the sonofabitchs even stole the election.
Gawd I hate to be right 99% of the time.....

[gratuitous]

21. Indeed

I wonder how assiduous the Times was in getting a second source for this? And considering what the Times has run with under the bylines of Judith Miller and others during the course of the ruinous Bush administration, information this damaging to the Bush administration and this much in the public's interest to know should have been published at the earliest possible opportunity. When Drudge or some other scurrilous outlet makes some spurious charge, the Times and the Post and the networks have felt obliged in the past to run with it because it is now "out there." Even when they know the story to be just so much nonsense. Here, the Times has a rock-solid source with times, dates, places and the whys and wherefores, specific details that fit in with so much of this corrupt administration, and it's the Sgt. Schultz "We know nuthink!" routine for a year and a half.

[ooglymoogly]

29. Where does the Times go to get its reputation back? "They" lament

To f'kin hell....bastards...and don't let those flames licking at your heels keep you from totally destroying yourselves with the tonnage of lies pushing you ever hellward.

[EFerrari]

22. While they were telling us we were paranoid about Ohio.

Whores.

[pattmarty]

3. Still a very brave guy. Here is one of the many, many..............

........."no name" people that will start coming out of the woodwork after Jan 20 to bear witness against the (probably) most criminal administration in our history. I truly believe (along with many others) that there will be a barrage of statements from low level bureaucrats in the coming year about this administration.

[Lugnut]

4. I'm already stocking up on popcorn.

I hope the offenders get their just desserts.

[pattmarty]

35. I wouldn't go quite that far, yet.

[John Q. Citizen]

5. This man deserves a medal.

[MrBlueSky]

13. John Q Citizen is right...

As far as I am concerned, the lawyer is a whistle blower and deserves to be treated as such; including, if necessary, entering into the witness protection program.

A previous commenter is correct too. If Greg Palast were the man the lawyer called, then perhaps a book would have been written about it.

The Times is just as complicit as any right wing fish wrap in this case. Regrettably.

[tclambert]

14. There was an idea in a science fiction novel that sounded good: Whistleblower awards.

Testimony that proved out could win the whistleblower a $1 million reward. This future society deemed it important enough to uncover corporate or political corruption that government reformers set up this program to not only protect whistleblowers from retaliation but to make them financially secure.

What whistleblowers really fear is the loss of their livelihoods. Every one knows blowing the whistle can get you fired. And it can make it near impossible to find a new job. Who wants to hire someone with a track record of ratting out their bosses?

In this pretend future, corporate and political leaders tread very carefully because they knew every employee would leap at the chance to win that whistleblower lottery.

In the book, it was a government program. In real life, I've been wondering if Michael Moore might be interested in bankrolling a once-a-year version of it. Sort of a whistleblower Nobel prize.

[bobd0]

17. Bush should be forced to give him The Presidential Medal of Freedom.

"he leaked the existence of the secret program to The New York Times 18 months before the newspaper broke the story."

"It's stunning that somebody higher up the chain of command didn't speak up,"

"Tamm told the magazine he has since struggled to make a living in private practice. FBI agents raided his house, grilled his family members, and questioned friends and associates. Though not formally charged with a crime, he has resisted pressure to cop a plea for divulging classified information."

This sounds like a bad story out of a fascist dictatorship. And it's been repeated hundreds if not thousands of times throughout all branches of government over the past eight long years.

Imperial presidency. Unitary executive branch. Dictatorship.

[EFerrari]

23. He's not doing very well. Out of government work and in major depression.

[elleng]

42. He's prolly got pension and other govt benefits,

AND working as defense atty now. Probably not doing badly, financially, if that's your concern.

[sakabatou]

30. Abso-frickin-lutely

[redqueen]

45. He certainly does. (nt)

[Robbien]

6. "somebody higher up the chain of command didn't speak up"

Which states a lot about how corrupt the DoJ has become. Is there any non-loyal Bushies further up the food chain left in the DoJ?

[KoKo]

11. And who was the "former colleague who worked with the Senate Judiciary Committee" who cut him short?

"After a former colleague who worked with the Senate Judiciary Committee cut short a conversation about the program, Tamm contacted the Times."

[balantz]

7. This kind of thing proves to me that the media is all fascist owned.

Don't even turn on the TV or radio (NPR too) unless you do so with the awareness that it is all twisted information to support the agenda of the corporate oligarchy.

[NoodleyAppendage]

8. Thomas Tamm = AMERICAN HERO / PATRIOT. We MUST remember this man.

This guy deserves a medal. A single individual stood up to protect the subversion of the Constitution. Thomas Tamm needs to be remembered by history. I see no difference between Mr. Tamm and the brave forefathers who spilled their blood to create our system of government.

Thank you, Thomas Tamm! You go into my book as a modern day American Patriot!

J

[Politicalboi]

19. This man and the

Shoe thrower deserve medals.

[autorank]

9. kI*r He's a hero and the NYT let is sit for 18 months to assure Bush's re-election

The NYT has some very good articles & reporters That's despite the the editor and publisher. That disgraced the
paper for good. The first nail in the coffin was Judith Miller's lies about Iraq. Great one Sabra, Nice title.

[defendandprotect]

10. Tamm knew he was there to protect Constitution ....

Many other Repugs seem to be confused about that --!!

[tclambert]

16. That sounds like a good idea. Maybe the higher-ups should swear such an oath, too.

How about if the President of the United States swears a solemn oath to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States," too.

[bertman]

34. Repugs?? How about Democrats and Republicans? As in Nancy Pelosi and Jay Rockefeller

to name two of the more illustrious traitors. And let's not forget our own new hero/President-elect who voted to continue the illegal wiretapping and surveillance, along with many, many more Democrats and Republicans.

I wish this were a Republican taint but it taint. It's ours too.

[defendandprotect]

38. Agree --

And I doubt this man will get a reward for trying to protect democracy by

warning us all -- tho the NY Times was nothing but a purposeful hindrance there--!!!

[bertman]

39. We at DU could see to it that he gets his reward. Is there a mechanism here we could use

to see that this man gets financial help? FBI harrassment at home and on the job is a debilitating disease to have foisted upon oneself. It leads to all kinds of complicatins and a malaise that can kill the spirit.

I'll chip in some $$$ to help him. He deserves it. While everyone else was bitching and moaning and going along, he was doing the right thing.

[defendandprotect]

40. Isn't there supposed to be an existing program to protect "Whistleblowers" ...??

Or did Bush also junk that--??

[bertman]

44. I don't know, defendandprotect. I'll start a post to find out.

[defendandprotect]

47. Try a poll ... Meanwhile, it seems clear that whatever the original ...

intentions of "Whistleblower" programs they're not sufficient protection ---

like everything else, they've probably been "Bushed" --

http://whistleblower.org/template/page.cfm?page_id=15
Includes Transition Memo to Obama

[sasquatch]

20. And the cowering dems let'em get away with it

[underpants]

24. From a payphone? Sounds like "Three Days of the Condor"

Robert Redford
Faye Dunaway

Joe Turner: Oil fields. Oil. That's it, isn't it? This whole damn thing was about oil! Wasn't it? Wasn't it?
Atwood: Yes, it was.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073802/

[DeepModem Mom]

25. K&R

[pacalo]

26. The Newsweek article was excellent. K&R.

[Uncle Joe]

31. I totally agree with Asa Hutchinson

"Tamm's lawyers say his case should be judged in that light. "When I looked at this, I was convinced that the action he took was based on his view of a higher responsibility," says Asa Hutchinson, the former U.S. attorney in Little Rock and under secretary of the Department of Homeland Security who is assisting in Tamm's defense. "It reflected a lawyer's responsibility to protect the rule of law." Hutchinson also challenged the idea—argued forcefully by other Bush administration officials at the time—that The New York Times story undermined the war on terror by tipping off Qaeda terrorists to surveillance. "Anybody who looks at the overall result of what happened wouldn't conclude there was any harm to the United States," he says. After reviewing all the circumstances, Hutchinson says he hopes the Justice Department would use its "discretion" and drop the investigation. In judging Tamm's actions—his decision to reveal what little he knew about a secret domestic spying program that still isn't completely known—it can be hard to decipher right from wrong. Sometimes the thinnest of lines separates the criminal from the hero."

How on earth could anyone in their right mind believe Al Qaeda wouldn't know they were being subject to surveillance? On the other hand millions of innocent Americans wouldn't have known they were being subject to illegal surveillance.

[w4rma]

32. This is yet another whitleblower that needs to be hired by the Obama administration. (nt)

[MasonJar]

33. Two sources...how about some investigative reporting?

[McCamy Taylor]

36. This man is the hero that Fitz is not. K & R. The only good DOJ lawyer is a whistle blower.

[snot]

37. k&r'd for a hero.

[Nikki Stone1]

46. He called from a subway station pay phone?

Are we sure he's ok?